


Sober and Serious

by the_ghostwriter96



Series: Enemies to Lovers [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, M/M, mentions of Jack and Maddie, serious conversations, sorry about that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 02:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13824375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_ghostwriter96/pseuds/the_ghostwriter96
Summary: Danny, after a reoccurring nightmare, seeks out Vlad again. Only this time, he's sober.





	Sober and Serious

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if I really like this tbh

It was a nice day. Sunny, but cool despite the approaching spring. The sun coming through the windows was warm against the air conditioner. The low hum of the busy Nasty Burger provided a sense of privacy in the conversation; no one would hear them, they’d just become bits of the background noise. Behind the counter, a cashier called rang up another customer. Behind Danny’s seat, a couple of teenagers burst into loud, obnoxious laughter that shook his booth-bench. He leaned back against the seat, stirring his milkshake with a straw.

Across from him, Sam and Tucker sat side-by-side, having split an order together. Tucker with the burger, and Sam with his side of fries. For a while, the three of them ate their food in relative silence. Every now and then Sam would look up from her food and study Danny’s face, concern in her eyes at the trouble that clouded his. It was his idea in the first place to meet up there after school, but so far, he had just been sitting there, silent.

He was busy doing what he’d been since the previous weekend; trying to remember everything that had happened after he’d left Sam’s house. They’d enjoyed a night of drinking for the first time- her parents were away, visiting a relative- and playing videogames and watching horror movies. At some point in the night, they both passed out, and he was left wide-awake and alone. He remembered that the longer he sat up, half-paying attention to the movie they’d put on, he started thinking about… well, the usual stuff.

It was hard to look at his friends, anymore. At the way Sam had grown, now several inches taller than he was and older-looking, too. Her features had matured. And Tucker had grown about a foot, and filled out his clothes now. They looked- their age. And Danny, well, he didn’t, and that was hard to swallow. Spending time with them was a constant reminder that while they were growing up, it didn’t seem like he was.

His dad called him a ‘late-bloomer’. His mother had mentioned how the men in her side of the family never got very tall. Jazz, Danny was pretty sure, suspected what he did. For a while, he held out hope that he really was just a late-bloomer. Hope that he would catch up to his friends one day, and surprise himself and everyone. But then, he ran into Vlad while he was out with his family, and he noticed something that made him feel sick. His parents, in the four years since he had gotten his powers, had *aged*. The lines around their eyes were more pronounced, there were thin lines across their foreheads now, and faint laugh-lines that were present even when they weren’t laughing. Vlad, on the other hand, looked exactly the same as he did the first time that they’d met.

For the next few months, that was all that was on his mind. He wasn’t getting older, like everyone else. He wasn’t aging. How would he explain that to everyone? And then, he thought, why did Vlad get older for so many years after his accident, but Danny barely did at all? And then, he thought about seeking out the older halfa, and asking him- but that would mean broaching the topic, and somehow, he felt like that would make it worse. It would make it… real. He’d have to face it. And then, the fact hit him all at once: if he wasn’t aging, and if his body healed itself the way it did, there was a very good chance that he would *never die*.

After a weeks of isolating himself to his room after school every day, another thought hit him. One that was simultaneously unpleasant, and comforting. He might live, half-dead, forever.

Vlad might, too.

And late that night, after his friends were asleep and he was out of his mind on fancy, fruity drinks and some straight vodka thrown in just for fun, he stumbled out of Sam’s house and into the night. He didn’t remember much of the walk. He remembered falling down, and busting his elbow. He remembered that his destination was Vlad’s, and that he’d gotten it in his loopy head that this visit, this talk that he planned was going to solve everything. Walking in the street in the middle of the night, and then he remembered being in a bathroom, with Vlad pressing a band-aide to his arm where he fell.

He only remembered small bits and pieces of their conversation, though. Enough to know it didn’t go as he’d hoped, but not enough to fully grasp what had gone down. Vlad called him names, he remembered that, because it had really bummed him out for some reason. (Apparently, Danny was a sensitive drunk, a fact that would make his moderate his alcohol consumption in the future.) Vlad called him naïve, but the rest of the conversation was a blur, and then Vlad took him home. Unfortunately, he *did* remember getting a little… emotional, at some point in their discussion. (Yes, definitely moderating his drinking, from that point on.)

At a nearby table, a crash brought Danny out of his thoughts; the waitress dropped the plates as she was cleaning off the abandoned table. He blinked, realizing now that he’d zoned out for a while.

“Hey, Danny, is everything okay?” Sam asked, propping her elbows up on the table. “You seem kinda down.”

“Yeah, man.” Tucker added, through a mouthful of burger. “You’ve been quiet for months, but not *this* quiet.”

Danny forced a smile that he hoped was reassuring. He asked them here for a reason, but he hadn’t said a word the entire time. “Sorry, I’m just thinking. Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you guys about.” And then, he added, “But you’re not gonna like it.”

“What’s up?” Sam asked, and Tucker set his burger back on its wrapper.

“For the last few days…” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, averting his eyes. This was kind of weird, kind of awkward to talk about. “I’ve been having these dreams,”

“What kind of dreams?” Tucker asked, with an almost reluctant edge to his voice.

“Nothing weird!” Danny insisted. “Just- dreams. About Vlad.”

“That doesn’t make it any less weird.” Sam said, picking up a french-fry. “What about him?”

“It’s just one dream, I guess, but I keep having the same one. Almost every night. Me and Vlad are fighting, flying way up high in the park. We’re just fighting, like we always do, only he’s not healing. And I am. But we keep fighting,” Danny explained. “And every time I hit him he gets hurt worse and worse. Until I blast him with plasma, and he falls out of the sky. He hits the fountain, and when I get down there, there’s blood in the water and he’s not Plasmius anymore, he’s human, and he’s-“ Danny stopped, and looked at his friends, hoping they could fill in the gap. Saying it out loud would make it worse. It was bad enough, seeing it almost every night, Vlad’s corpse lying twisted and broken in a busted fountain.

For a while, neither of his friends said a word. They just looked at him, like they didn’t know what to say. The longer they sat in silence, the more he regretted telling them about it- maybe it was too weird, maybe he should’ve just kept it to himself.

“What do you think it means?” Sam asked, softly, finally breaking the silence and Danny slumped back in the seat with relief.

“I have no idea.” He replied, only half-lying. He had an idea, but he knew it wasn’t something his friends would want to hear. “But I need to talk to Vlad.” When Sam and Tucker exchanged a look, Danny frowned. “What?”

“About what, Danny? Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

“About- us. About a truce. I can’t keep fighting him. Every time we fight the dream gets worse, Sam!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands up.

“Do you really think he’ll listen to you, dude?” Tucker asked, doubtfully. “He’s kind of, well… you know. Vlad.”

Danny lowered his eyes to his untouched milkshake, thinking. After a moment, he looked back up, and said, “Yeah, I do.” Even if he won’t agree to a truce, he’d at least hear what Danny had to say. He did it before- or at least, Danny’s pretty sure he did.

“At least let us go with you.”

“To do what, Sam? To get hurt if things go wrong? Thanks, but no thanks. I can protect myself.”

Tucker picked up his burger. “Well, if you think that’s what you need to do, I say go for it.”

Sam glared at him, but he was too distracted by his food to notice. Danny picked up his slowly-melting shake and raised the straw to his lips, going over in his mind what he was going to say to Vlad when he saw him. It was only the night before that they last saw each other; Plasmius was causing trouble at the mall, and Danny showed up to stop him. The fight had been… weird, to say the least.

There was less banter, for one. Danny couldn’t come up with anything sassy or sarcastic to say, he was lacking on taunts and jabs. All he could think about was the fact that he’d shown up to Vlad’s house, drunk, and Vlad had essentially taken care of him. Even made sure he got home safely. Vlad, on the other hand, had been almost completely on defense the whole time, barely striking at Danny before Jack and Maddie showed up to deal with the ghost-situation and they both had fled. And there was another thing; Vlad hadn’t taken the opportunity to humiliate Jack. He’d just left.

The dream, and the weird fight, and the broken memory of their last conversation… Danny knew he had to talk to him. He just wasn’t sure what to say.

…

It was dark out, but this time, it wasn’t after midnight. And this time, Danny was completely sober. But flying through the night sky, beneath the stars and the moon, he almost wished he wasn’t. The nearer he drew to Vlad’s mansion, the worse his nerves got and by the time he could see it in the distance, he felt like he was about to throw up. There was something menacing about the home, standing tall and dark and gloomy in the night.

Of *course* it was menacing, Danny mentally rolled his eyes at himself. It’s Vlad’s house. Where Vlad lived. Plasmius. His arch-enemy. And yet here he was, waltzing up to his front door like they were old pals. And for what? To say, “Hey V-man, let’s be friends!” and hope it goes well? His hope for a decent outcome was dwindling before he even got there, and he almost turned around to fly back home.

Almost.

Danny rang the doorbell, and then stood still. For a second. Then, he shoved his hands in his pockets, shuffling his feet while he waited anxiously for someone to come to the door. For every second that passed him by, he kind of hoped that no one was home, and he could put this off for another day.

No such luck; after what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a couple of minutes, the door swung open to reveal the silver-haired, suited man. At first, he looked surprised, and then his features fell into a scowl and he sighed a heavy, irritated sigh.

“I do hope you’re not intoxicated, again.”

“Nope!” Danny grinned, hoping his face wasn’t glowing as bright as it was hot. “Completely sober. I need to talk to you.”

“Again? Was our last chat not satisfactory?”

Maybe it would’ve been, if he could *remember* it. He ran his fingers through his white, wind-mussed hair. “Can I come in?”

At first, Vlad doesn’t answer, and Danny wonders if maybe he’s going to shut the door in his face. But then he steps back, with another sigh, and lets Danny inside. The teen follows him, silently floating along up a long staircase, and down a hallway that seemed to stretch forever. It had other hallways that they passed, too. How did Vlad not get lost in here? It was so big, and every door looked the same. Even the paintings on the walls looked the same; pictures of flowers, or ponds, or fields, or trees. Generic painting after generic painting. They turned down another hallway, and already Danny felt lost in a maze.

Finally, Vlad led him into a room, and shut the door behind them. In one corner, facing the opposite wall was a dark, wooden desk with an open laptop and papers stacked neatly on the side. There were bookshelves along the walls. In the opposite corner diagonal from the desk, there was a burgundy, gothic-style loveseat with a matching chair and table. The only light in the room came from a small lamp on the desk, casting their shadows up the walls, distorted by shelves.

Danny dropped his feet to the floor, changing forms.

“So, is all your furniture like this, or?” He asked, dropping down onto the couch. Vlad sat down in the chair, crossing one leg over the other.

“Like what, Daniel?”

“Like- you know. Gothic. It looks like a vampire lives here.”

“So you’ve said.” Vlad said evenly, but there was a slight quirk to his lips that Danny didn’t miss- though he didn’t remember saying that. What else did he say? “I was in the middle of working, so if you wouldn’t mind getting to the point.”

The problem with that was, he didn’t really *know* his point. He had a couple of different things to say, but actually saying them was going to be hard. Where should he even start? It didn’t seem like Vlad was in a particularly conversational mood, either. Danny took a deep breath, opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again, sighing through his nose. This was harder than it had been in his head, on the way over.

“I’ve been having this dream.” He decided to start there, not totally sure where he was going with it. “And in it, I really, really hurt you.”

“As though you could,” Vlad scoffed.

Danny ignored him. “And when I realize you’re- gone, I’m sad. And scared. And every time I wake up, it’s the same thing. I think you’re really gone, and every time, before I remember that it was just a dream, I think the same thing.” He paused for a moment, picking at his nails, eyes lowered so that he was looking anywhere but at Vlad.

He must have paused for longer than he thought, because Vlad prompted him with a sneer. “And what is it you think, Little Badger?”

Danny suppressed a grimace at the nickname. He didn’t answer, at first. Finally, he raised his eyes, meeting Vlad’s as his own face warmed. “I don’t want you gone.”

Vlad seemed to pale, eyes widening and shoulders tensing. Whatever he’d been expecting, it hadn’t been *that*. Danny began to panic, mentally scrambling for a way to take it back, for a way to calm the man down in case things escalated.

“I mean, uh… I didn’t mean it in a- I just meant…” But his mind had gone blank, heart pounding in his chest and suddenly he felt a very strong urge to go intangible and phase through the ceiling and out of the house, and to fly far, far away from here and pretend this had never happened.

When Vlad *finally* seemed to find his voice, it was tight, and the pompous, uppity cadence to his voice was strained. Forced, Danny thought. “So you’ve decided to renounce your father and-“

“*No*.” Danny cut him off. “But I *have* decided that I can’t fight you anymore, Vlad.” The man’s face was completely blank, now. Unreadable.

“Isn’t that nice? I’ll finally have free reign over the town without you meddling with my schemes. I can finally destroy Jack Fenton, and-“

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Oh, do explain,” Vlad said, with sarcastic enthusiasm.

Danny stood up, his hands curled into tight fists at his sides while he looked down at the older man. “We can’t do this forever. We *can’t*.” Danny insisted when Vlad raised his eyebrows, smugly. “I’m not going to. And I’m also not going to let you hurt my dad.”

Vlad rose up uncrossed his legs, dropping his foot to the floor before standing. He crossed his arms, staring down at Danny with a blank expression. “I’m afraid I don’t quite follow.“

“We can’t just fight without an end for the rest of our lives.” He explained, running his fingers through his hair and trying to stay calm. He had practiced this part in his head. “And there’s only one end to this.” Before Vlad could ask, he went on. “One of us has to win.”

Vlad barked a laugh, smirking like Danny had just told a joke. “And you think the winner will be *you*? How *cute*.”

Danny, keeping his face impassive and his voice steady, said, “No, I don’t.”

The older halfa’s smirk faltered, and then faded away as Danny’s meaning became clear to him. His arms slowly fell away from his chest, resting loosely at his sides and he studied Danny’s face. For several long moments, neither of them spoke. When Vlad finally did, he didn’t sound angry, or smug. Just tired, and bitter.

“Do you believe that I would fight you until the very end, Little Badger? I want you as my son, as my protégé. I do not desire your *death*.”

Well, technically, he was dead already. Half-dead, at least. And that was one of the things that had made Vlad so obsessed with him in the first place, so yes, technically, he *did* desire Danny’s death- but the younger halfa thought better of pointing that out, right now. “And I’ll *never* be those things to you, so what’s the point in fighting if it’s never gonna end?”

Vlad’s icy, blue eyes closed for a moment, and when they opened again they were sharp and fixed in a cold glare. “If this is all you’ve come to say, you can be on your way.” He snapped. “I’ve heard you.”

“That’s not all.”

“Wonderful.”

Danny ignored that. Softly, he said, “I want a truce. We can be friends.”

Vlad stepped up to him, phasing his legs through the table. “Do you realize who you’re speaking to?”

“Look, don’t try to threaten me-“

“I’m not *threatening* you, dear boy, I’m *reminding* you, because it seems as though you’ve forgotten.”

“I know exactly who you are, Vlad. Better than anyone else.”

And he did. He knew a side of Vlad that not even the man himself knew; the side that took him in, after Danny’s family and friends died. The side that was willing to remove his ghost half- the very reason that he wanted Danny in the first place, and he was willing to destroy that aspect of him. The side that helped him stop Dan. And now, the side of him that patched up an injured, drunken teenager despite his claims to despise him, and even more, made sure he got home safely.

As they stood there, Danny wondered what was going on in Vlad’s mind. What was he thinking? Danny’s own mind was racing with worries, anxieties and what-ifs. What if Vlad declined his offer of friendship? What would happen then? Or else, what if he accepted? Danny hadn’t thought that far ahead.

When Vlad didn’t answer, Danny went on. “One day, my mom and dad…” He paused, trying to decide how to word it. “Won’t be around. They’ll be gone. But I’ll still be here, and so will you.” This was his final attempt. If this didn’t work, he would give up, and go home. “And when that time comes, I’m not going to be your enemy. We can be friends, or we can just- go separate ways. But like I said before; I don’t want you gone. I just don’t want you as my enemy.”

Seconds ticked by, until the seconds- to Danny, at least- felt like minutes, and nothing was said. Vlad’s expression was thoughtful, and calculating. He could see the gears turning in the man’s head as he went over everything Danny had said, and Danny couldn’t decide whether it was dangerous to hope for his acceptance. To hope for his friendship.

What would a friendship with the older halfa even look like? Danny was 17, and Vlad was- what, 40 now? But they had common ground between them. They had their ghost halves, their history. They wouldn’t be starting a friendship out of nothing, and it would be nice to have someone to talk to about halfa-related issues that no one else would understand. And Vlad was *smart*. He probably knew a lot more about it than Danny did. He could come to him with questions, they could figure things out together, they could-

From Danny’s back pocket, a song interrupted the silence and Danny’s thoughts. For a second, he didn’t move, but when he realized it was late at night and the ringtone was Sam’s, he pulled the phone out of his pocket and held it up to his ears, dropping his eyes to the floor.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, and when she answered his eyes fell shut and he suppressed a sigh of frustration.

“Skulker’s chasing a ghost through town, and he’s causing a lot of damage. Someone’s gonna get hurt.”

For a moment, he just focused on not letting his frustration get the better of him. When he replied, he was careful to keep his irritation from his tone. “I’ll take care of it.”

“The last report said he was by the middle school.”

“Thanks, Sam.” He said, and hung up the phone. Tucking it back into his pocket, he looked at Vlad. “Skulker’s in town.” He explained, shortly. This was such a bad time, and he was *so* going to beat the snot out of the ghost for this. “I have to take care of it.”

“Of course. You’re the hero, after all.” There was nothing in Vlad’s voice that indicated they had just had the discussion that they had. Nothing to point to his answer, either way.

“Get back to me, okay?”

“Yes, yes.” Vlad waved a hand at him dismissively, passing through the furniture, making his way to his desk in the corner. “Shouldn’t you get going? I have work of my own to take care of.”

Danny looked at him, heaved a tired sigh, and changed forms. Then, he flew through the ceiling and into the night, leaving Vlad behind.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if this is any good? Because I like the ending, but I don't know if the dialogue is any good- I tried to keep them in character, but it's also late and I've been writing this for a long time without a real break, soooooooo


End file.
